Pamela Anderson Slammed on Social Media for Wearing Native American Headdress on Halloween
Pamela Anderson is in hot water.
Social media users are accusing the Baywatch star, 52, of cultural appropriation after she tweeted two photos of herself wearing nothing but white underwear and a traditional Native American headdress on Halloween.
In the first shot, a topless Anderson can be seen covered in white paint, holding the large feather piece over her shoulder. While in the second, the actress poses on a staircase wearing the massive headdress.
“Happy Halloween 👻” she wrote alongside the pair of pictures.
The controversial costume received instant backlash, with many social media users calling Anderson’s post racist and insensitive.
“This is really disappointing & racist Pam, I thought you were better than this,” one user wrote.
Another added, “Pamela… please no. Like I genuinely respect you, you have broadly good politics and should really know better.”
Anderson — who’s participated in animal right’s protests and starred in several PETA ad campaigns — was also called out for wearing bird feathers.
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“And you wore the feathers of how many dead birds, Pam? Cultural appropriation, racism and hypocrisy all in one photoshoot. I’m sure folks at @peta are mighty proud of their association with you,” one social media user said.
“AND she’s against the seal hunt #racism,” another said, to which the Playboy alum had a lengthy response: “I am against the seal hunt. It’s barbaric and unsustainable ..to beat baby seals – crush there skulls for a 2$ pelt that there is no market for. Makes no sense. There are other ways .. to stay true to tradition – saving the environment,” she wrote on Twitter.
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Anderson also shared one of the photos on Instagram — but not before “limiting” the comment section.
“Whenever you do something that is not aligned with the yearning or your soul—you create suffering. Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. #anaisnin ❤️ #warrior by @laurielynnstark#happyhalloween,” she captioned the post.
Speaking with NPR last week, Henu Josephine Tarrant (an artist and performer of the Ho-Chunk, Hopi and Rappahannock tribes) explained that Native American Halloween costumes are problematic because they inaccurately portray modern Indigenous people.
“It really is a reflection of how we look to [non-Native Americans] and what we are to them,” she told the outlet. “We aren’t seen as modern-day people at all. That’s also what makes it really difficult for people to understand that what they’re doing is offensive. Because for so long, it’s really been, I guess, ingrained into Americana, and cowboys and Indians is a part of that.”
